The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

Tribune Staff Reporter

rmajor@tribunemedia.net

THE aunt of the teenage girl found dead Wednesday morning at Stokes Cabana in the Yamacraw area said her family is distraught over her murder.

Police said shortly after 7am, they were alerted to the partially nude body of a female on a beach at the abandoned and damaged property.

At the scene, Chief Supt Solomon Cash said there was evidence of blunt force trauma, adding officers were investigating the possibility the victim was sexually assaulted.

Police later identified the victim as Kenrika Martin, 17, of Nassau Village.

In an interview with The Tribune, Kenrika’s aunt, Tyrene Knowles said her niece was sweet and loving.

She said: “She was a regular 17-year-old girl. She enjoyed going out and having fun. For something like this to happen, this really a shocker right now.

“This isn’t easy. She’s my sister’s only daughter and the second oldest child. She was very friendly and she loved fashion. She liked to dress up and she was never the type of girl to be all about.”

Ms Knowles sobbed as she reminisced on her last conversation with her niece.

She said: “The last time we talked, and what hurting me so much is she said, ‘aunty you’re my favourite aunty’. Basically, my sister was always on her own and she is hurting so much, she never had a mother in her life, and she wanted to be a mother to lil’ T. These dogs just take my sister baby just like that. It’s hard I can’t even explain it, I don’t think my sister can ever come back from this one. I don’t think so.”

Kenrika’s death brought the country’s murder count to 91 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

The homicide came almost a week after National Security Minister Marvin Dames told reporters that police will be beefing up manpower in the capital as the holiday season approaches.

He was speaking on the increase of homicides compared with last year’s figure around this time. The Minnis administration has previously said that they want to reduce the number of murders in the country to 85 by 2021. Last year, there were 91 murders, a decrease from 122 in 2017.